Zan for Three
Down Goes DeMar
In the coming weeks we will get a better picture of what this team looks like when its back is against the wall. With DeMar DeRozan, arguably the teams best player, out for an extended period of time the Raptors will need to find production from other sources. If Sunday nights game against the Lakers is any indication, it could be a long couple of months in Raptor land. The team looked out of sorts and couldn’t get anything going without DeMar in the starting lineup.
This is really the first adversity the team has faced in the last couple of years, at least from an injury standpoint, and will need to adjust on both ends of the floor. DeMar has been a very focal part of the team’s game plan each night and this injury will test the resolve of the team and the coaching staff.
DeMar cannot be replaced. He is the heart and soul of the team and even when he isn’t scoring, the attention he gets from opposing defences is what helps other players on the team produce.
The Raptors are going to need big time production from Terrance Ross, Jonas Valanciunas and Lou Williams while we all wait for DeRozan to return.
Hopefully they can hold down the fort while DeRozan is out and keep this team near the top of the Eastern Conference.
It won’t be easy
Jonas time
Sometimes young players need to be forced into playing to their potential. It’s easy to get into a routine and play at the same level all the time when you’re just starting out and not much is expected. Jonas Valanciunas has been good since he arrived from Lithuania two years ago, with flashes of great, but he’s never been great consistently.
This season is supposed to be the year he breaks out and becomes a higher level player. We all know the potential is there. Now with DeMar DeRozan out for an extended period of time an opportunity is presenting itself for Jonas to become a bigger part of this team.
Jonas possess qualities that other NBA centers do not. He is 7″2′ and 300 lbs. He is a beast of a man in the mould of the 90’s centres. He would be just another big body next to guys like Shaq and Alonzo Mourning. But he’s matching up against guys like Mason Plumlee and Enes Kanter and should be dominating them.
DeMar DeRozan is gone for a while and my money is on the Raptors looking to make Jonas a much larger part of the offensive game plan. They would be foolish not to. He is a matchup problem for many teams in the league and has the potential to be a 20 and 10 guy every night.
In fact, last week when Jalen Rose visited Toronto as part of Flashback Friday, he made this exact point. The key for the Raptors going forward is for Jonas to make the jump from contributor to star. He needs to be a 20 and 10 guy every night for the Raptors to take that next step they so desperately want to take.
To do this he is going to have to keep himself on the court and out of foul trouble. He’s also going to need to play in crunch time. On Sunday night in L.A., though he didn’t have a great game, Jonas was on the floor during the fourth quarter and overtime. That is the first time in quite a few games that Jonas has been allowed to play crunch time minutes. This would seem to indicate that Jonas is going to be a big part of the team over the next little while DeMar nurses his injury and Dwane Casey is going to let him sink or swim in the most important parts of games.
DeMar’s injury may force Jonas to finally step up.
Credit to the Coach
While there has been lots of love being tossed around (rightfully so) to the Raptor players and Masai Ujiri for the teams’ hot start, little has been mentioned of the coach…until yesterday.
Casey was awarded the coach of the month award for his stellar work leading the Raptors to first in the Eastern Conference.
Dwane Casey needs and deserves more credit like this for how great things are going in Toronto. The team is scoring at a high rate and playing pretty strong on the defensive end as well. Anybody who thought last year’s success was a fluke has been rather quiet this season as Casey and the Raptors are proving that last year was no outlier season.
Much of the credit for the turnaround should be given to Casey. He has helped bring the best out of Kyle Lowry and his hardworking, focused demeanor has really caught on with the players.
This season the team burst out of the gate and are currently first in the East, but you wouldn’t know it from looking at them. The team is focused on the task at hand and never lets themselves celebrate too much. Last year’s playoff defeat is still too fresh to allow for that.
Casey took a team last year that many thought would be battling for the first overall pick and led them to an Atlantic division title. This year he appears to have the team reaching even higher.
Though the great start to the season is no guarantee of playoff performance later in the season, Casey deserves credit for the way this team has fought and the way they carry themselves day in and day out. They may just be the team to beat in the East this year.
We are lucky to have Coach Casey.
And 1
It was nice to see Jalen Rose on Friday at the ACC. Though his Raptors tenure will not be remembered for many wins or playoff appearances, he remains one of the best interviews in the NBA. Rose is a true “call it like I see it” guy and whether you agree with his opinion or not, you have to respect the way he carries himself. He has become one of the most watchable retirees out there in broadcasting and is a solid addition to the Grantland staff. It was great to hear his take on the Vince Carter trade one which he was very closely affected by when he was playing here. Referring to the players the Raptors got in return for Carter as a “box of rocks” and reminding us that Rafael Araujo was our number one draft pick that year are the type of straight up comments you’d wish more players weren’t afraid to say. He was and still is one of my favourites to listen to.
flagrant 2
There is one thing I can’t stand about basketball and that is the incessant complaining to referees that players do on almost every single call. Usually it is the LeBron’s and Kobe’s of the world that a guilty of it, but lately I have seen my own Toronto Raptors complaining a lot more to the referees.
Now, it is a good sign that the Raptor players now feel they deserve calls on our side as it wasn’t long ago that referees would almost completely ignore our players getting hacked and bounced around by opposing teams because we were so terrible. But it might be getting a bit out of hand lately.
While I agree with most of the “twitterverse” about the strange calls and lack thereof during the late stages of the Lakers game on Sunday, it should be noted that the Raptors straight up stunk it up. A call here or there in the Raptors favour could have made a difference in the final outcome, but so could a bucket or two on the offensive side of the game and the Raptors couldn’t buy one of them.
You can’t play for the whistle and the Raptors seemed to be doing that a lot in LA. I hope Casey reminds them of this in practice and gets them back to playing the gritty style of play that got them to the top of the Eastern Conference.
Kristoffer Pedlar
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